Adib Shishakli

Adlib Shishakli (1909-27 September 1964) was the Prime Minister of the Syrian Republic from 11 July 1953 to 25 February 1954 (succeeding Fawzi Selu and preceding Hashim al-Atassi) and President of Syria from 19 July 1953 to 1 March 1954 (succeeidng Fawzi Selu and preceding Sabri al-Assali). He was the leader of the Arab Liberation Movement, an authoritarian Syrian nationalist party. In 1954, he resigned from power to prevent a civil war after the opposition threatened a coup. He was assassinated in Ceres, Brazil, in 1964 by a Druze named Nawaf Ghazaleh, whose family had been killed in Shishakli's suppression of the Druze people.

Biography
Adlib Shishakli was born to a Kurdish Sunni Muslim family in Hama, Syria Vilayet, Ottoman Empire (present-day Hama Governorate, Syria). In 1930 he was commissioned as an officer in the French Syrian Army of French Syria, and studied at the Military Academy of Damascus before becoming a member of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP) of Antun Saadeh. After Syrian independence in 1946, he fought in the volunteer Arab Liberation Army (ALA) against Israel in the Israeli War of Independence. In 1949, Shishakli and Sami al-Hinnawi supported the CIA-backed coup of Husni al-Za'im, but Za'im's suggestions that women should give up the Islamic practice of veiling, his agreement with the United States to build the Trans-Arabian Pipeline, his raising of taxes for businessmen, his peace overture to Israel in which he would take in 300,000 Palestinians in exchange for more land near Lake Tiberias, and the rise of Arab nationalism all led to his immense unpopularity. After only four months and three days of being president, Za'im was killed in a coup d'etat by Shishakli and al-Hinnawi, and al-Hinnawi led a military junta. al-Hinnawi refused to be the sole power in the Syrian Republic and restored the parliamentary system. Former 1930s President of Syria Hashem al-Atassi became Prime Minister of Syria under Hinnawi, and he wanted to unite Hashemite Iraq with Syria. A nationalist, Shishakli arrested Hinnawi in December 1949 and had Syrian Air Force commander Colonel Mohammad Nasser assassinated, weakening the pro-union elements in Syria. Prime Minister Maarouf al-Dawalibi and Syrian People's Party leader Nazim al-Kudsi, among others, were arrested for pro-Iraq sentiment, and Shishakli made Fawzi Selu the Chief-of-Staff of the Syrian Army, Prime Minister, Minister of Defense, and head of state, but Shishakli was really the man with all of the power.

Shishakli dissolved all political parties and returned Syria to military rule, outlawing all non-pro-Shishakli newspapers in the country and persecuting the Syrian National Party, the Syrian People's Party, the Syrian Communist Party, Syrian Ba'ath Party, and Syrian Muslim Brotherhood. Ba'athist leaders Michel Aflaq, Akram al-Hawrani, and Salah al-Bitar were sent to Lebanon, where they worked against him. In August 1952, Shishakli established the Arab Liberation Movement party, a progressive authoritarian party that allowed women in its ranks and called for a limited degree of socialism.

On 11 July 1953, Adlib Shishakli was elected President of Syria through his own rigged elections. He established friendly relations with Saudi Arabia and Jordan while being hostile with Israel and Iraq. He later adopted a policy of pan-Arabism despite his Kurdish origins, and in 1954 he shelled Jabal Druze, the home of the independent-minded Druze minority, to put down their resistance to his rule (allegedly with funds from Jordan). During his tenure as President, he refused to follow the United States' advice to assimilate Palestinian refugees into Syrian culture and therefore seem to accept defeat and make peace with Israel (as well as repairing damaged relations with the West).

On 25 February 1954, growing discontent with Shishakli's rule led to a coup by the Communist Party, Druze officers, and Ba'athists with Iraqi backing. He fled to Lebanon, but left for Brazil when Druze leader Kamal Jumblatt threatened to have him killed. Prior to 1958, he toyed with the idea of retaking power in Syria using Iraqi funds, but Syrian intelligence foiled his plans and sentenced him to death in absentia.

On 27 September 1964, Shishakli was assassinated by Druze Nawaf Ghazaleh, whose family was killed by Shishakli's bombardment of Jabal Druze. Shishakli's death removed the tyranny from Syria for a short while, and his racist policies came to an end with his party, which was disbanded in 1963, a year before his death.